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Chaplin., torn between opposite desires, allowed himself to be persuaded by Robinson, and went back to the nursing home, where he stayed for two hours beside his mother, who only just realized the presence of her son, who could do nothing any more to make up for the lean years.
Robinson meanwhile uneasily wondered how wise he had been in interfering in so intimate a matter : but when Chaplin returned to the car after his ordeal, he said, "You were right, Carl, I feel much better about it all now. She recognized me, and took my hand, and said, 'My boy,' then she lost consciousness again. How glad I am that I was there for that ! "
That night, Chaplin sat with Robinson in a Hollywood restaurant, waiting in a state of extreme nervous tension for the news that would mean release for his mother, and loss for himself. It came in the early hours of the morning, and Chaplin received the news with a bleak face.
When he set to work again upon the film, it was with renewed energy, and again he was keyed to so high a pitch that his close friends were deeply worried.
For inexplicable reasons, or no reason at all, he dismissed both Clive and Crocker. Through Clive's dismissal, he was forced to retake much of the film, for Clive had taken one of the major roles — that of the eccentric millionaire.
Then, equally suddenly, he took a violent antipathy to his leading lady, Virginia Cherrill, who was told to take a few days' holiday. Studio gossip suggested that Virginia's loss of favour was due to the fact that Chaplin had renewed his earlier friendship with Georgia Hale, and now wanted her to play the sweet blind flower seller. Unfortunately for these plans, Georgia, however disguised with blonde wigs, could not conceal the fact that she was not a fine enough actress to put over a role that was utterly foreign to her.
It was clear that Georgia Hale would never take the part, and Chaplin's worried executives watched him trying to replace Virginia Cherrill by various young women, who seemed to have the quality he was seeking, but proved to have neither technique nor skill when they were tested.
Finally, Virginia, who never knew how narrowly she had escaped the loss of her new status, was recalled, and at last this film of many vicissitudes was finished. When it was completed Chaplin realized that, however unwilling he might be to destroy "Charlie" by putting him into a talkie, there was no reason for denying the film a musical sound track.
The young man who once heard the singing of the spheres in a